RELATED COVERAGE

U.S. stocks ended lower, snapping a three-day winning streak on mixed earnings. Verizon fell 3.3 percent after warning that a strike by workers would likely impact its bottom line.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 113.75 points, or 0.63 percent, to 17,982.52, the S&P 500 lost 10.92 points, or 0.52 percent, to 2,091.48 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.24 points, or 0.05 percent, to 4,945.89.

ROBOT

Expectations for first-quarter U.S. earnings were low, with S&P 500 index companies expected to post a 7.2 percent fall in profit on average, and a 1.4 percent decline in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.

“These are greatly reduced expectations, so I hope they do beat these expectations, because otherwise we’d really be in dire straits,” said Michael Mullaney, chief investment officer at Fiduciary Trust Co in Boston.

The MSCI world stock index hit its highest level in almost five months early Thursday before trading down 0.2 percent, while European shares closed down 0.3 percent.